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Progressive Era Women

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In the time period leading up to the 1920s, a woman’s role in the United States was starting to change. The culture of the country was going through a major shift by way of the workforce, the prohibition, and the end of World War I. Parallel to these changes, women’s roles in society began to morph and expand along with women’s fashion. The suffrage movement was a huge step for women in history; it was a fight for political representation and the right for women to vote. After years of lobbying and fighting against the government, the nineteenth amendment was finally passed on June 4, 1919, ratified on August 19, 1920, and guaranteed all American women the right to vote. The new era of the roaring twenties jumpstarted a different view of women …show more content…
The image of the “New Women” was propaganda for the changes women were undergoing. On the picture, it stated, “The new women and her bicycle – there will be several varieties of her.” This statement was another representation of the new roles women were playing; she began taking her bicycle to work, playing an instrument, and carry her baby. Although the image depicts a women taking on multiple roles, her fashion still had aspects of the Progressive Era fashion. For example, she is wearing very accentuated puffy sleeves and a corset which both were not worn during the twenties because they were uncomfortable and unnecessary when women were working. Some aspects of the clothing did have fashion in it from the twenties as well. The trousers and bow tie portray the new more liberated and comfortable attire of the twenties, representing the transition of the progressive era to the roaring twenties as well as portraying the new woman that has evolved. This new woman is now liberated, carefree, comfortable, and open about her …show more content…
Flapper’s changed the fashion norms for women entirely. The norm, for example, of long locks went out the window, and bobbed hair came in. Normal attire for a flapper was shorter dresses that were brighter than ever before, showing off dramatic colors with fur or sequins. Low wasted, tubular dresses were worn because they allowed women to literally kick up their heels in new dances displayed at Speakeasies, like the Charleston. Shorter skirts with pleats, gathers, or slits also allowed more motion and were apart of the flapper “uniform”. Ellen Welles a writer for Outlook Magazine during the twenties talked about “flapperdom” – otherwise known as women who are flappers or the flapper community. She further explains how outsiders would call her a flapper because she has the trademarked bobbed hair, is in the age limit of a normal flapper, powders her nose, wears bright sweaters, fringed skirts, scarfs, and heeled shoes, she dances and drives, but she does not pluck her eyebrows, wear blush or lipstick, and does not smoke so she does not classify herself as a full flapper. Ellen explains that there are different degrees of a flapper: supper-flap, flapper, and the semi-flapper. Ellen also states that the older generation of the progressive era needs to overlook the short dresses and fringe and understand what a flapper stands for and how they are progressing women’s rights

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